


For you there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do

by QueenUnderTheMountain (Rinchen)



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinchen/pseuds/QueenUnderTheMountain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bilbo is an only child in a company of brothers. He doesn't mind until they pity him for that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For you there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do

Bilbo looked around the camp and smiled. The Dwarves were laughing and singing and simply having a good time despite the task that lay before them. His selfless (or stupid?) attack on Azog to defend Thorin had pushed his reputation in the group and he wasn't treated like a stranger who happened to travel with them anymore but as a valuable member of their group.

“You have to tell your brother a lot when you return to the Shire, Mister Boggins.”

“My brother? I don't have a brother.”

Kili looked disconcerted at Bilbo. “No brother. Then … you will tell your sister?”

“I don't have a sister either, Master Kili.”

“You have no siblings?” Ori tossed in, interested.

“Are they … dead?” Bofur stood up, looking very concerned and ready to comfort Bilbo.

“What? No! They are not dead. I just have none. Why is everybody suddenly interested in my familiar situation? It is none of your concern! Honestly, you dwarves.”

Bilbo was prepared for everything. For loud arguments from one side to the camp to another or even a wrangling. But he wasn't prepared for complete silence.

“Did I say something wrong? Have I … insulted you? Anyone of you?” But nobody answered Bilbo's questions they just looked regretfully at Bilbo. He hated that look. He was surrounded with that look after his parents had died and he couldn't stand it.

“You know what? I will spare you with my presence for some time. I seem to have killed the mood. You are better off without me right now.” Bilbo rose and stomped out of the camp, making his way to a nearby current.

“Uncle Thorin, do you think we have affronted Mister Boggins?”

“I do not know, Kili. Hobbits do have a completely other culture as us Dwarves. Perhaps it is normal to have no siblings.”

Fili gasped and clutched Kili's hand. “I don't think that I could imagine what it is like having no brother.”

“I'll go and comfort the lad. He looked upset.” Bofur set down his plate and was ready to go in the direction Bilbo had disappeared.

“Wait! Not you! I will go to our burglar.” Bofur looked questioningly at Thorin as if he had grown a second head. “I am the only one that knows what it is like to have no brother. Not anymore.”

Bifur shouted a few sentences in Khuzdul at Thorin.

“Yeah, that's right. Bifur knows how it's to have no siblings at all.”

“I am perfectly aware of his situation, thank you, Bofur. But the Halfling isn't able to understand Bifur.” With a short nod Thorin dismissed Bofur who sat down again.

“I will go and search our Hobbit. Do not follow me, none of you. I want to speak with him alone.”

  
  


Bilbo sat at the little current that run a few feet next to their camp and threw stones in its bed. Confound these dwarves! What was so extraordinary and strange about having no siblings? Nothing. It was just normal. Maybe just for him, but some people simply didn't have brothers or sisters. And if he didn't have any that was just his business, mind you. He had had his parents and many cousins. It never had bothered him that he didn't have siblings. And it didn't now. What had put him over the edge a few minutes ago was their faces. Those faces of pity and grief. He couldn't stand those faces. Not since his parents had died in quick succession and he was showered in those faces by his relatives. Bilbo sighed and threw another stone in the water.

“Master Baggins? Are you here?”

“Yes, I am over there. But please, can you not leave me be for a few moments? I will be back shortly. I am not getting lost, I promise.”

Thorin brushed a few branches away to get to the current. “Surely not. You seem very upset, Master Baggins.”

“I am most definitively not! I am a Baggins of Bag End and we Bagginses do not get upset!”

“And yet you are sitting by a current, throwing stones into it and screaming at me. You are certainly not upset.” Thorin gave Bilbo a mocking grin.

“Do what you want but leave me alone. Please.” Bilbo's voice trembled. He bit his lip and turned away from Thorin. He would not cry in front of him. He would not humiliate himself like that. He shut his eyes and wished Thorin to go away. But the dwarf didn't. Instead he sat on a stone next to Bilbo, picked up a pebble and let it jump over the water. Bilbo opened his eyes and watched to stone.

“I had a brother once. Frerin.” They both looked silent at the current.

“He died. At the battle of Azanulbizar.” Bilbo said nothing. He didn't even turn his head to look at Thorin.

“Within one day I lost my grandfather and father. And my brother. I should have grieved for my father and my grandfather but I couldn't. I lost my brother. My precious baby brother who went to his first real battle. I lost my brother who I swore to protect. I was sick with grief for him. I had failed him. I tried to remain strong, to guide my people whose leader I had become, but the loss hurt deeply. After a while I got accustomed to the hurt and the grief. But what I couldn't get accustomed to were the faces. The pity. The agony. I became angry at them, pushed them away, closed myself in. I never truly recovered from that loss.”

Thorin looked to Bilbo. There were tears shimmering in the Hobbit's eyes.

“My sister helped me a lot. It helped that I had her. A dwarf without siblings is unimaginable. If a dwarf has no brother or sister he grows up with cousins or children from neighbours. But never alone. Those bonds are being kept their whole lives.”

“I … I don't have any siblings. I am an only child so I can just imagine what your loss must feel like. My parents died nine months apart. My father in the Fell Winter, my mother from grief in the following autumn. And I too closed myself away, pushing the people away who cared for me because I couldn't stand their sympathy and pitying looks. I grew up with my cousins but pushed them too far away in that time. Now I am all alone. And I think because of that I followed you. To get out of the Shire, to help you reclaim a home for your families. For not being homeless any more.”

Thorin turned his head, looking Bilbo directly in the eyes.

“We have a home in Ered Luin. We wouldn't need Erebor.”

“You may have a home in the Blue Mountains, but it feels strange, doesn't it?”

The dwarf just looked questioningly at Bilbo.

“It does. I have the same feeling. Bag End may be my home and I may miss it, its comfort, but it is empty. It is bare any life and love. As it used to be when my parents were still alive.” Bilbo's voice faded to the end and he closed his eyes. Suddenly he felt a hand over his. Startled he opened his eyes again. Over his small hand rested a bigger one. A dwarven one. Thorin's. Bilbo raised his eyes and looked at Thorin who smiled at him. And, oh, how sweet was that smile. Bilbo had to force himself to breathe. Thorin leaned closer to him, Bilbo's heart beating heavily against his chest. The dwarf came nearer and nearer and Bilbo closed his eyes in expectation of what would follow.

But the expected kiss didn't come. Instead Thorin touched Bilbo's forehead with his own, one hand touching the Hobbit's neck. The dwarf gave Bilbo's nose with his a slight nudge and stroked lightly above the skin in Bilbo's neck. Bilbo exhaled shakingly and laid his other hand onto Thorin's in his lap. He all but enjoyed their closeness.

Then Thorin spoke in a low tone.

“I, Thorin, of the Line of Durin, offer you hereby my kinship, Bilbo Baggins. To protect you, to guide you, to give you a home. You shall be my brother in all but blood and I shall do everything to make you happy and not regret your choice. Do you accept my offer?”

Bilbo blinked and retrieved a little bit from Thorin's touch. He looked aghast at the dwarf but then smiled.

“Yes. Yes, I accept your generous offer. Though I do not know what I have done to earn that honour. I … “ Bilbo lifted his hand and stroke lightly above Thorin's cheek. “I shall do my very best to give you all that back which what you are presenting me.”

Bilbo collected all his courage and kissed Thorin lightly on his lips. “I would do everything for you. There is nothing in this world I wouldn't.”


End file.
